US Denies Abbas an Entry Visa for the Second Year, Citing the Palestinian Authority’s Failure to Reform

For the second year in a row, the United States has denied Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s application for an entry visa to address the UN General Assembly in New York, US and Palestinian officials said. Abbas’s office was notified of the decision on Wednesday, September 16, 2026. Similar rejections were issued to dozens of other PA officials who had hoped to travel with him.

A notice sent to one PA official cited “Section 212(a)(3)(B), which prohibits the issuance of a visa to a person who at any time engaged in terrorist activities or was associated with a terrorist organization,” and called it “a permanent ineligibility.” It was not immediately clear whether Abbas’s own visa was rejected on the same grounds. The State Department said the PA violated US legislation that penalizes Ramallah if it targets Israel in international organizations, advances the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, pays stipends to terrorists, or glorifies violence. “As a consequence of their failure to reform, contrary to their commitments to the United States, and their ongoing activities that undermine the prospects for peace, the United States will extend sanctions that deny visas to PLO members and PA officials,” the department said.

The administration will maintain a waiver allowing members of the Palestinian Mission to the UN to continue operating from New York. The mission submitted a resolution to allow Abbas to address the body virtually, as he did in 2025, with the measure set to come before the General Assembly on Thursday, September 17, 2026. Abbas is slotted to speak on Thursday, September 24, 2026, the same day as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The PA’s foreign ministry called the visa decision “an unjustified measure.”

(TOI/VFI News)